First Gold for Walsh

Catherine Walsh became the first Irish athlete to take gold at an ITU paratriathlon event when she and pilot Fran Meehan won the women's PT5 event.

The win saw Walsh pick up an additional 40 Paralympic qualifying points, which brings her total to just over 1000 points for the qualifying period. She's ranked 11th on the Paralympic qualifying list and is Ireland's best hope to qualify for the Rio Games later this year, according to paratriathlon coach Eamonn Tilley.

"Only the winner of the World Championship and the top six on the paralympic qualifying list get automatic places. The next athletes gain their places by way of a bi-partate invitation system. They have to show that they worthy by dint of their results so Catherine and Fran's performance over the weekend will help a lot in this as they've beaten a lot of athletes ranked ahead of them on the list."

Silver Medal

Fresh from her bronze medal at the Lisbon European Championships, Fiona McCormack went one better by taking silver in Strathclyde while Tojo Lazzari rounded out a superb weekend for the paratriathlon squad by claiming the bronze medal in the men's PT3 event.

Coach Eamonn Tilley said he was delighted with the medal haul:

"We've taken another step forward in the right direction. In our first year of development we've seen the numbers of athletes competing in Europe jump from two to six athletes, our medal tally has increased and this is the first time we've ever received gold. Also it's great to see that on one outing we got three medals in three different categories."

Rio hopeful Aidan McGlynn finished 4th in the men's PT4 category, a performance that will help with his aspirations to make it to the paralympics, according to Eamonn Tilley: "Aidan is now ranked 18th in the World. He is in a more difficult position than Catherine and Fran but he has beaten more than six of the athletes ranked ahead of him and is developing through each race. This was one of his best results - he was only 40secs behind David Hill, the athlete ranked seventh in the world."

Next up, the paratriathlon squad head for France on June 19th for one of the final events before the olympic qualifying period ends. Find out more information on the Bresancon event on the ITU's website.